Wireless communication involves transmission of encoded information on a modulated radio frequency (RF) carrier signal. A wireless receiver includes an RF antenna that receives a wireless signal, and a demodulator that converts the RF signal to a baseband. In a multi-carrier wireless communication system, such as an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, transmitted signals are susceptible to multi-path scattering and reflection, which can cause interference between information transmitted on different symbols. For this reason, the receiver typically includes a channel estimator that measures fluctuation of the channel response. The receiver uses the measured channel response to adjust the incoming signals, and compensate for channel effects that could cause interference.
The receiver demodulates the communication signal using an oscillator that operates independently of the transmitter carrier frequency. The receiver periodically samples the received analog carrier signal, and extracts a communication signal using digital signal processing techniques. Differences between the carrier frequency and the demodulation frequency of the receiver may contribute phase rotation to the frequency domain signal. This frequency error produces a phase shift that increases as time progresses, and can be accompanied by additive phase noise. Accordingly, the receiver also may perform phase error estimation and correction to improve decoding accuracy.
Encoding techniques such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) involve mapping of a finite number of bits to each transmitted symbol to encode information in the wireless signal. To decode the information, the receiver demaps the symbols, typically using a soft demapping algorithm. A soft decision for a given bit can be obtained using a log likelihood ratio. The soft decisions are used to calculate branch metrics for a convolutional decoder such as a Viterbi decoder.
Equalization, soft demapping and phase error estimation represent some of the features that contribute to the size, complexity and cost of a wireless receiver. Such features ordinarily are necessary in a wireless communication system, however, to ensure effective communication of desired information.